Sights, travels and friends!

Well, it's been busy since I last wrote... My first full day here we met up with Jagat first thing and went to the Monkey Temple. It's a Buddhist temple, but here there is so much blend that there were Hindu elements an parts to the temple as well. The temple is up on the top of a hill. Very pretty, and there were lots of dogs and pigeons. Jagat gave us a great tour, told us all about things. Saw a poor little dog that looked like an elephant... at least his skin did. Only little hair, and that was bristle like, then his skin was dark grey and think and wrinkled. Poor little guy, it was sad to see. There were a few monkeys up on top, but I think there were too many people. On the way back down, we saw a bunch more. Some real cute little monkeys playing around and swinging on a strand of prayer flags along the stairs. On the way back to the hotel, our taxi driver pulled over and dropped off a big fruit of some sort with his wife. That was cute. Apparently it was something he'd picked up while we were exploring the temple and he was waiting for us.

When we got back we had some down time before we were to meet with our mountain guide to check gear. Jagat is our trekking guide and arranged the expedition, but his cousin-brother (that's the title he used) is going to guide the final couple days of the summit climb. I went wit Jon to go find a geocache he'd looked up that was here in Kathmandu, and only about a half mile from our hotel. The only problem was that he doesn't have the topos for Nepal, so we just had a dot on the screen of our goal, and a little arrow where we were at. So we spent a while trying to find streets that would go where we needed. We eventually found the place, but not without having to look up the info online. The geocache was with a trekking company and to get to their office, we had to go down a hallway off the street, then up the stairs, around the corner, etc. Not something we would have been able to just stumble upon. Well, we each grabbed a travel bug and headed off to find our way back... What an adventure. It was hilarious to see our route on his GPS when we got back. We DEFINITELY took the scenic route. It was pretty cool to get off the beaten tourist track, as we ended up walking through some residential areas where there were no other white people or tourists of any sort. We made a big circuit around where our hotel is located and had to backtrack a few times, as roads we hoped would connect through would end up dead ends.

The streets here are amazing... I've heard there are in fact a few road rules, but I don't think anyone knows them.. and if they do they certainly don't abide by them. Basically if you can fit through, it's a lane. There is a very intricate and incredibly successful dance between cars, motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians (who might be carrying anything from lumber between two to huge loads on their back, or nothing at all). Somehow, everyone seems to weave in and out very smoothly. It's amazing! I have found that you have to just be confident and aware and go about your way. Everyone puts just a little effort into not hitting anyone else or being hit by anyone else, but for the most part it seems like most don't really care and are just going about their business. You don't really move out of people's way as that would throw you into someone else's. You move a little, and the other person moves a little and you both pass by, in and out of spaces that open and close around you. Somehow... don't ask exactly how, but it works!

After we met Lall (not sure on the spelling but that's how it sounds), our climbing guide, we headed out to get some gear we needed. After we split from Jagat and Lall to continue our search for a few key items, Les and Marschelle were going one way and Jon and I another when Les called from behind us. Shannon Gibb had just run into them! I had been in contact with Shannon on email to try to catch up, but she had checked by our hotel and not finding us there had headed out onto the streets! So that was fun to meet up. Shannon joined Jon and me on our search, and we all met up to go to Durbar Square in the evening. Durbar Square has a few temples and some neat buildings as well as being where a living goddess lives. She wasn't out when we were there so we didn't see her, only where she lives and visits the people each day. Les and Marschelle headed back to meet up with a guy they met on the Annapurna and introduce him to Jagat. The guy's name is Rupert and he's an architect from the UK who has been working with designing systems to help developing countries for water and other needs. Shannon, Jon and I hung out and grabbed supper together. Then Jon and I offered to walk Shannon to her hotel... but we didn't know how to get back to ours, so Shannon actually walked us home :S lol The streets here are actually very safe. Nepalese are very respectful and while you are sometimes pressured by street vendors, people don't try to steal from you and aren't too pushy. Much better than many places.